


Just this once, everybody lives!

by fauchevalent



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Multi, Untagged ships, anti skyeward and grant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 04:56:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5954413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauchevalent/pseuds/fauchevalent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy has put far too much effort into saving Coulson's life to let it all go to waste now.</p><p>- - -</p><p>A story about an alternate reality, a useless attempt to stop Phil from putting his life in danger, and Daisy getting aggressively protective of her family - er, team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alternate Universes and Gods of Thunder and Nerves, Oh My!

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a favorite quote of mine from the ninth doctor, and I don't own AoS or the Avengers :)

Daisy had put far too much effort into saving Coulson's life to let it all go to waste now.  
Her hands shake - not  _dangerously_ , she notes, allowing herself a small sigh of relief, just with unmitigated and unnamed feelings.   
She remembers  _reality_ \- or what might've been reality, had anyone stopped to think and tried to discern the difference between it and anything else - and remembers watching Coulson slowly fall apart. She remembers GH-325 and what it did to him, and remembers him telling her in soft sentences that he wouldn't let anyone use it on him again, not after T.A.H.I.T.I, and she remembers watching Coulson, probably halfway to death already, clinging to his ICER ( like that was going to help ), and she remembers watching time slow down as the bullet fitted it's way between his third and fourth rib. She remembers crying into Simmons' shoulder, and she remembers when they all wore black as they buried him with his parents before keeping on, each one of them trying to tell themselves  _it's what he would've wanted,_ but none of them believing it.  
She remembers that SHIELD and the Avengers had been under a kind of... divorce at the time, the Avengers not having any information on T.A.H.I.T.I, and she remembers that no one but the team could come to Phil Coulson's funeral, because he was already legally dead at the time.  
She remembers it all like it was yesterday, and not a year and a half ago, and she still trembles sometimes with the pain, even when she looks at the man they buried a year and a half ago.  
 _Especially_ when she looks at the man they buried a year and a half ago.  
Through some other terribly named SHIELD protocol - Daisy has since pushed the name behind darkened, closed doors in her mind - they ended up carefully placed here, in this alternate universe, where Phil is alive and only Melinda and Daisy remember anything about before.   
Daisy sort of hates it, a little bit. But then Melinda squeezes her shoulder and they both look over at the man that was dead for a year and a half, who they managed to bring back without T.A.H.I.T.I, and she smiles.   
In this carefully constructed reality, Daisy knows T.A.H.I.T.I didn't happen - she and Melinda had weighed the pros and cons of keeping or leaving it, and decided leaving T.A.H.I.T.I behind was best for Coulson's physical and mental state. And it was true - he looked better than he ever had while on GH-325, Daisy thought, tossing him a crooked smile as he passed by. Of course, he knew about the drug - he knew they'd used it to save Daisy's life, because they'd kept that. They'd kept most things, Daisy thought, when deciding upon the alternate reality route.  
They had somehow stumbled upon a reality where the Battle of New York hadn't happened - or it hadn't happened yet? Daisy wasn't clear on the whole bit, but she knew that if it was going to happen, she would have to keep Coulson out of it. Her other choice would be letting everything play out, and the results would be disastrous, and end with the drug in his system.   
So she wasn't going to let that happen, simple as that. Daisy was honing her powers as _Quake_ , and if worse came to worse, and the Avengers really needed a helping hand, she'd be more than happy to step in and fill Coulson's place.   
Not that the Avengers... really _knew_. That SHIELD was bustling, or that Coulson was running a team with a bonafide baby superhero in their very own city. Daisy and Melinda had very, very carefully concocted a plan for this reality, in which there were numerous things and people between Coulson and the Avengers, in hopes that this would keep him out of the eventual Battle of New York. If it ever happened.   
Which Daisy has no proof it would or would not.  
Which is driving her insane.   
"Alright, Daisy - let's hit the mats," Melinda calls, effectively snapping her out of her reverie, and the two head down for the training rooms.

* * *

 

"You're worried." Melinda observes, blocking a hit from Daisy with relative ease. "Turn your punches, you're hitting me in the knuckles. You're going to get yourself hurt." She adds, catching Daisy's next punch when she makes no move to change them. "Daisy."  
"What?" Her breaths are ragged and her eyes are red even though they've only been fighting for five or six minutes.  
"You're worried."  
Daisy quirks an eyebrow and huffs out a, "That obvious, huh?"  
Melinda tightens her grip on her hand. "If it's that obvious, what you're going to have is a worried Phil, wondering what's wrong. You know that."  
"Nothing's wrong." Daisy insists. "I'm just... worried."  
"C'mon," Melinda sighs, dropping Daisy's hand and guiding her to the benches. "I'm going to wrap your knuckles, because you weren't listening -" Melinda's voice is chiding and Daisy can't help but scoff. "Hey! Daisy, you could've gotten yourself seriously hurt. You weren't watching. How come?" Melinda asks, pulling a salve out of the first aid kit and using a gentle hand to apply it on the scraped knuckles. "Ouch. Anyway, I'm  _fine_. I was just... thinking, is all."  
"About what?" Melinda asks, and Daisy can't read any deeper into her emotions.   
"About Coulson." Daisy mutters, and Melinda sighs, wrapping a bandage tightly around Daisy's knuckles. "Hey, we got him this far, didn't we?"  
"Just barely." Daisy argues under her breath, and she feels Melinda's eyes on her as she falls back against the wall. "Plus, I got word from Stark's servers - "  
"Hacked word -" Melinda interprets, and Daisy shrugs, allowing the discrepancy to hang in the air. "They're worried about Loki coming down. Melinda... It could be New York." Daisy half whispers, and Melinda runs her thumb along Daisy's taped up knuckles. "Yes." She says finally, "It could be. And Phil could do something incredibly stupid, but... we have to hope. We have to trust him, I guess. As silly and stupid as it sounds, it's the best we've got."  
Daisy nods a little, and stands up, letting out a quiet breath into the silence. "Yeah." She says, "I guess it is."  
A knock sounds on the door and both women stand up, but Melinda is the one to answer, "Yep?"  
"Sorry to interrupt," Coulson's voice calls from the other side, "But we have a Theta Protocol about to be used, and I could use two of my best agents upstairs when it happens."  
"Thor." Daisy breathes out, quietly enough that Coulson doesn't hear it, but Melinda inhales deeply and squeezes her eyes shut. "Well, kid - it's now or never." She mumbles, and then, to Coulson, she calls, "We'll be right up."  
"Are you going to be okay?" Melinda asks, and Daisy straightens up her spine and gives a little nod. "Now or never, right?"

* * *

 

Sure enough, there's the boom of thunder and a flash of lightning that heralds the coming of the god himself, and Daisy and Melinda ascend the stairs to meet the rest of the group, who are all wearing the same bemused smile.  
"Thor," Coulson says, speaking first, "Thanks for joining us."  
"Of course, Son of Coul!" The god booms, and his eyes fall to the rest of the group, searching them all until he lands at the end of the line, on Daisy, and his eyes find her wrapped knuckles almost immediately. "Where were you injured, warrior?" He asks, and Daisy sighs. Coulson turns to her instinctively, worry laced through his eyes, and Daisy forces a smile and replies, "Just training, is all."  
"Ah! A good warrior is always training," Thor nods appreciatively, and Daisy drops her gaze to the floor.  
"Uh, Thor - unfortunately, we don't really know what you and the Avengers are up to right now," Coulson begins, and Daisy bites back an 'or fortunately,' despite herself. "But we think there's a big storm brewing. So we'd like to have you all on our side."   
"Ah," Thor says solemnly, stewing for a second on the idea, "You have heard of Loki."  
Daisy does her best not to squeak, but it doesn't really work, apparently, since Thor and Coulson turn to her and Melinda squeezes her elbow comfortingly. "Ah, the young warrior has heard of my brother, yes?" Thor smiles, but it does not reach his eyes, and it's all Daisy can do to nod.  
"It's alright," he says, even though Daisy wants to scream that it  _isn't, it's not alright_ , and he shrugs. "My brother is mostly docile, we think. He may be planning a type of world domination -"  
"That's hardly docile." Melinda quips, and she must feel Daisy jump, because she puts herself between Coulson's line of sight and Daisy.   
"Yes, well. We believe he can't do much harm."  
"That's good," Coulson says, grinning, "That's very good to hear. Still, I'd prefer we all be on the same side."  
"Of course, Son of Coul. I will have the Man of Iron -" Daisy notes that he's still not particularly good at the whole names thing, though she can't imagine why - "set up a meeting at our tower. Until then, warriors." Thor booms, grinning down at the group, and when he leaves in another flash of thunder and lightning, the group collectively sighs.  
"He sure is... something." Fitz pipes up, and the agents laugh, heading back to their stations, until the only people left are Daisy, Melinda, and Coulson.   
"AC - I'd like to be the Avengers first call, even though I'm not the head of the team." Daisy says suddenly, and she feels Melinda tense. "Daisy..." Coulson begins, but Melinda speaks up.  
"It's a good call, Phil. Daisy has powers, super healing, she'll be the safest out of all of us. She should be our first in line for the mission."  
Coulson reluctantly agrees, after only a little bit of coercion, and the thought that Daisy gets sent in before Coulson lifts a weight off her shoulders that's been there for going on two years. 


	2. Meeting the Avengers ( or at least, doing it in this timeline )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's raining the day Tony Stark has called the meeting, and Daisy tries not to read too far into the metaphor of the whole thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CR @ Chapter one notes :)

It's raining the day Tony Stark has called the meeting, and Daisy tries not to read too far into the metaphor of the whole thing.  
Coulson is the first to enter Avengers tower, and JARVIS has apparently been warned about them, as he calls out, "Welcome, Agents," as they file in behind him like ducks. "I'll be taking you up to Mr. Stark's personal floor, where the team is currently gathered." The AI informs them, and Coulson gives a brief nod before adding, "Alright."  
When the elevator doors ping softly and slide open, they reveal the entirety of the Avengers, dressed down and lounging on couches - the exception being Thor, who still wears his cape and greets them as they enter with a booming, "Hello, warriors!"  
Only Melinda and Daisy are unperturbed by the whole scene - they remember interactions with the Avengers before, they remember how the personalities fit. Even Coulson, who knows some of the members personally, is a bit visibly uncomfortable and hangs back in the silence.   
So Daisy strides forward.   
"Hi. Daisy Johnson, superhero, SHIELD agent, and official liason for this mission. When you guys need someone, whether it's hacking or going into battle, you'll be calling  _me_ , is that clear?" Melinda hides a chuckle and Coulson tries to pretend like he's not proud as he says, "Daisy -" but Natasha cuts him off with a wave of her hand. "I like her, Phil."   
Her words seem to surprise, again, everyone but Melinda and Daisy, who simply share a small smile. "So, Daisy, you go into the field before Coulson, huh?" Tony calls from his perch on a loveseat, and Daisy lifts her chin even though she has to look down to meet his eyes. "Yes."  
"How come?"  
She puts on a giant fake smile and says, "None of your business, Stark," faster than Coulson can get a word in edgewise.   
"Daisy." Coulson says, crossing his arms, but she can see the smile in his eyes, and she simply grins back at him. "Alright, AC. Now that we've got that covered, let's run over schematics."

* * *

 

Later, after the plan has been gone over time and time again ( and a couple more Avengers have established that Daisy will be fine - "She's gonna fit right in in the field," Cint chuckles, after Daisy breaks up a shouting match between Tony and Thor ), Daisy sneaks into the kitchen, where she finds Melinda, smirking at her.  
"You know, that was risky, the way you handled that."  
"I know them," Daisy argues, crossing her arms over her chest.   
"They don't know you," Melinda points out, and Daisy nods in agreement. "Yeah. That's true. I hope this doesn't go too badly, you know?"  
"We'll be fine." Melinda replies, looking meaningfully out into the living room at Coulson, and Daisy nods.  
"I hope so."

* * *

 

It's not until Daisy and Melinda have headed off into the kitchen that Coulson catches Clint by the arm. "Hey, Barton. I need you to promise me something, alright?" Clint quirks an eyebrow, and Coulson drops his guard for a second. "Please."  
"Alright, Phil - what do you need," he decides, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I - I'd like it if you called me, instead of Daisy, if the battle happens."  
Clint opens his mouth to protest, and Coulson shakes his head. "Barton, I need - I can't let her get hurt, okay? She's like family."  
Clint sighs and runs a hand through his hair, silent for a minute, before he decides. "Alright, Phil. I'll call you instead of the girl - just... do us all a favor and don't do anything stupid, okay? I don't want to be the one to tell her you're gone."  
"I hope you won't have to."


End file.
